I'm Engaged!

What I thought was a birthday get together with friends actually turned into a surprise engagement party planned by Fabian.... more details to come.

Christmas with Mom and Dad

I convinced Mom and Dad to come to Cali for Christmas so they could finally see where I live and work. They were here for 12 days and Fabian and I took them on a tour to see a variety of places. I even got to visit some places I had never been, like the Cocora valley where the wax palm tree grows. It is the tallest palm tree in the world and only grows in this valley. We also went to Bogota and Villa de Leyva. We spent Christmas dinner with Fabian's family and enjoyed great restaurants and lots of wine. Good thing Fabian can keep up with my dad. I am definitely the light weight of the family when it comes to drinking!

Angie and Savvas' Wedding

I made a quick trip back to Canada last weekend for Angie and Savvas' wedding in Kingston. I flew into T.O. Friday morning, spent the afternoon in Port Hope with my mom and dad and then went straight to the rehersal dinner. The wedding was great! Angie looked amazing! Who would have thought that one night at an untimate BBQ would have led to such a great couple!

Halloween Shenanigans Part II

Our house was full of Halloween spirit during Halloween Shenanigans Part II. The costumes were great! Fabian went to a new extreme with his costume this year! You'll understand what I mean when you see the pictures! I loved my fun costume too!

Paddle in the Amazon

I spent my Easter holiday with my 3 friends Jenn, Tara and Caroline. We flew to Leticia, Colombia. Leticia is a town of about 20,000 located on the main stream of the Amazon where the borders of Colombia, Peru and Brazil meet. From there we took a boat 4 hours down river into a tributary of the Amazon called the Javari. We stayed at a nature reserve in Brazil for the week. It was great! We hiked, swam, hunted cayman, ate piranahs and slept 40 meters up in a tree in the jungle. The motto of the trip was don't look for the party, BE the party and I think we followed through... for some reason we became the enertainment for the other guests on a regular basis.

I celebrated my 30th birthday while we were there. It was great. We took a boat to a lagoon and at night, climbed 40mts up into the canopy and then took a zip line across the lagoon to the other platform and spent the night. Definitely a memorable experience.

Christmas in Cartagena

For Christmas this year I went to meet my parents for a week in Cartagena. I even brought along Fabian so my parents could meet him. We had the best time!!We lazed on the beach, ate the most amazing meals and even visited a mud volcano!

Cartagena ia a UNESCO World Heritage site and the Old City is beautiful. It is filled with tiny streets and beautiful painted houses. The resaurants are the best part. They are everywhere and the food is incredible.

Fabian got a chance to practice lots of English! My dad helped him out amplifying his vocabulary with pratical words like drowsy! Thanks Dad!

It was a great time and I think my parents enjoyed escaping winter so much that they are already planning next year's trip.

Another Colombian Holiday - Oh Darn!! Villa de Leyva

One of the perks of teaching at an international school is that we celebrate all Colombian holidays as well as American Thanksgiving. Since we had a four-day weekend last weekend we decided to go to a tiny town about 3 hours outside Bogota. Jenn, Tara and I flew to Bogota and then got on a bus, but my hat goes off to our other friends who took the curvy 12 hour bus ride from Cali. Can any of you imagine me on that bus ride? I would have to take a lot of drugs to survive that!!!

Villa de Leyva is a beautiful town and it even has a French Bakery (we ate there at least 2x a day)! We stayed at a cute bed and breakfast, went horseback riding, shopping and walking around town. We also brainstormed all details of a pipe dream about how we could open a school there.

Halloween Shenanigans

Jenn and I had a Halloween bash at our house. Costumes were a must and people got creative. I think my feet are still recovering from those platform shoes! Click on the link to see more photos.

Back in Cali

So far this year, things are good. Much more tranquilo than last year. I guess it helps that my year didn't start off with losing my life's belongings!

School is good. I have a very cute class and I definitely have more time to do interesting things with them now that I know what is going on and how everything works.

Outside of school I am still doing lot of Yoga and we try to go to our "finca" (like a cottage) up in the mountains as much as we can. Right now Jenn and I are taking a cooking class on Saturdays. The theme is Mediterranean. I haven't done much traveling yet, but now is the time of year where there are a lot of long weekends, so we have plans in the works to do some traveling. We will go to Villa de Leyva in 2 weeks and then for Christmas Fabian and I will go and meet my Mom and Dad in Cartagena for a week and hopefully spend another week traveling too.